Dinosaurs!

We have a family membership at the Cleveland Zoo. Its great!

So this last Friday we packed everyone up for our first* full-family zoo adventure of the season, and we found THIS!!!

*We've actually been to the Toledo Zoo already this year, but the hometown zoo counts for the real 'first'.

Meghan's comment after viewing the above 'movie' was simply;

"I can't believe you spent all this time on that."

Thanks dear.

As we walked through the Dinosaur section of the zoo, I realized two things:

1) That I really liked dinosaurs as a kid, and I still kinda do.

2) That I had absolutely no interest in reading the signs.

I'll probably read those signs on a later visit this summer, but for now I just wanted to appreciate the beauty of the natural/animatronic world.

The signs just confuse things anyhow. Palentologists have changed all the dinosaur names two or three times since I was a kid... and I think they had something to do with downgrading Pluto from its planet status as well. I figure it's all about the marketing.

Those signs also force the whole issue of the age of the earth. Its tough to read to your kid that, "The Laziguanasaurus lived in what is now Chile about 1.5 jillion years ago" ...and then explain that the sign, though likely accurate on many points (like the part about Chile), isn't quite in the 'hard facts' category when it comes to the timeline. You're supposed to be able to trust those signs... but that's what a Christian deals with when dipping the toes into the scientific world.

Speaking of trust... Here's a serious 'Jurassic Park' moment for you:

"But I don't understand, Mr. Hammond said that the park was perfectly safe..."

We heard this poor child say something about "being a dentist for the dinosaur"

...our sympathies to those who knew him.

This guy was in the entirely wrong section of the zoo. Not even close to the other dinosaurs.

So appaling! They treat him as if he weren't even real!

...